FILE FORMATS & STANDARDS -- Practices Make Perfect

Darling points out that DDAP has been a member of the Ghent PDF Workgroup and he expects the two organizations to continue working together going forward. Both fully endorse PDF/X as the basis of file delivery, he says, but there are differences in their requirements that need to be addressed.

The true value of PDF/X comes into play when setting up best practices, Darling asserts. Through DDAP and SWOP (Specifications for Web Offset Publications), he personally has been working on a specification for color managed, monitor-based proofing in a digital ad workflow. Using standards makes it practical to set up systems for vendor-agnostic, heterogeneous production environments, he adds.